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David Appleyard

David Appleyard

David Appleyard helps to build fun things for the design community, including Design Shack, Theme Junkie, Creative VIP, and Themelantic.

Articles / 2 Aug 2007

10 Great CSS Star Raters

People need a way to know what’s great and what isn’t on the web – so rating systems have been around for a long time. Here is a collection of 20 fantastic CSS star rating tools to integrate into your own website.

We’ve tried to include a star rating script for each blogging or coding platform out there.

Accessibility / 31 Jul 2007

Custom 404 Error Page

The standard 404 error page can often be really frustrating for readers. Using a simple .htaccess file can allow you to customise your error page, and ensure that users are displayed a useful alternative.

Accessibility / 26 Jul 2007

Cross Browser Testing (Mac)

Many web professionals use Apple’s OSX for design and despite what you may think, it’s not difficult to test your website in the big three browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. This article talks you through how to easily test your site and gain access to these browsers on a Mac.

Articles / 18 Jul 2007

Cross Browser Transparency

There are many complicated methods to create transparency effects across the various browsers available (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer), but it can be simple to achieve this effect using a few CSS tricks. Albeit with a couple of limitations.

Accessibility / 16 Jul 2007

The Basics of Semantics

Semantics is a word which strikes fear into many a designer’s heart, but it need not be a difficult or complicated topic. It concerns meaningful expression, avoiding presentational markup and using appropriate and meaningful tags where possible.

Essentially, designing and writing HTML code in a semantic way is as simple as keeping your HTML concerned with the content of the page and not the layout. Some of the simple steps below will help you to ensure that you stay semantically pleasing to search engines, spiders and visitors

Articles / 11 Jul 2007

CSS Tabs Rollover Menu

Using a tabbed rollover menu in the header of your website can add functionality, as well as making the navigation look good. Doing this in CSS means that you can use it to it’s greatest capacity, easily add or remove tabs and change the colour in different styles.

Articles / 11 Jul 2007

Pop Out CSS Menu

For websites with a complex hierarchy of navigation, using a pop out menu can allow you to easily find your way to what you want quickly. Using CSS to create one is a snap, and is easy to update.

Articles / 6 Jul 2007

The Need for Standards

More and more is being said about web standards and the need to build compliant sites. That’s all well and good, but why is that the case, and what are the benefits to you of designing with standards in mind? How can you persuade a client to spend extra money on a standards compliant website?

Articles / 5 Jul 2007

Five Tips for Better Typography

When designing online, people often overlook the need to careful consideration of font styles, sizes and colours. How you display and position the words on your page can have a dramatic impact on how long people stay on your site, and how much they take in.

If you follow our five simple steps below, you will see a dramatic improvement in the look and feel of your designs. You’ll benefit from readers spending a little more time browsing through your pages.

Articles / 29 Jun 2007

Design Shack Relaunch

As the popularity of Design Shack grows month on month, we have decided to expand it further and increase it’s functionality. As well as offering the same great CSS designs as before, Design Shack now contains tutorials, news articles and a whole new way of looking at our gallery.

You now search by how you would like to be inspired – by Colour, Layout or Category. This opens up a new realm of functionality for CSS gallery websites and enhances navigation greatly. It’s much easier to submit your website to us, and navigating around is a breeze. Designs load faster and are much more optimised than before.

We hope you enjoy it, and feel free to send us your feedback!

Articles / 23 Jun 2007

HTML Form Basics

HTML is used mainly for presenting and showcasing information for the visitor. But it’s also easy to allow them to enter information and use it in various ways. This tutorial uses the example of a contact form.